Report Writing for Readers with Little Time

Rien Elling, Bas A. Andeweg, Christine Swankhuizen, Jaap de Jong, Kim van der Linden

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781138131798
• eBook ISBN: 9781000035872
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

Writing reports is a vital skill in many professions and roles across every sector. Despite this, the majority of reports generated in organizations tend to be difficult to read, dull and do not make the impact they should - either for the content or for the author.

In this book, you will learn how to write in a convincing way for a variety of different audiences. Fundamentals covered include structure, graphic presentation, plagiarism and oral presentation. The authors include a useful section on writing under pressure (by writing as a team, for example) as well as material on pitfalls to avoid when writing in English as a second language.

This simple, effective book is a great tool for readers across the globe who wish to improve their report-writing skills.

1
Introduction

What do you need to know to be an effective writer? It can be summed up as follows: do not use more words than necessary, make sure the text has an introduction, a main body and a conclusion, and avoid jargon. These rules are deceptively simple: you probably know them already and if you do not, it will not take you long to learn them off by heart.

Using these rules, however, may be quite a different matter. If the assignment given by the person in charge is unclear, if the readers for whom you are writing have widely different backgrounds, if the mass of data that you have to incorporate is complex and the deadline is set in concrete, then most of these rules may turn out to be purely academic.

With these considerations in mind, this book sets out to provide an approach – a systematic way of going about writing – rather than a set of simple rules. The first requirement for an efficient approach to a writing task is to adopt the right attitude towards your readers. As a rule, your public will consist of a number of different groups, varying from specialists in the field to managers. While the information these readers will be looking for will vary, what they will have in common is a chronic lack of time and a dislike of lengthy reports. As well as that they are likely to be critical readers and you will have to convince them that your information is important and reliable.

The approach we take in this book will increase the chance that you will produce an end product that is satisfactory for all parties. There will be times, however, that you will look in vain for a remedy for your particular writing problems. Everybody has developed their own way of writing texts, and these ways may be confused, laborious or incorrect. Not even the most comprehensive advice will be able to solve all problems. This book may not meet all your needs, therefore – some things may need additional practice and you may need

feedback from experienced readers. If you do not have the opportunity to follow a writing course you should make use of every opportunity to obtain comments from critical colleagues.

This book was written for people with little time: if you wish, use it selectively. The following table shows where to find the answers to some important questions. The order is based on the five questions we are most frequently asked in our own situations.

Five frequently asked questions – and where to find the answers
What individual parts should a report contain? What are the requirements for each part of the report?	Chapter 6 Requirements for each part of the report.
How do I approach writing effectively right from the start?	Chapter 3 From assignment to text
How can I convey my ideas convincingly?	Chapter 10 Persuasive writing
What is the best way of structuring my report?	Chapter 5 Structuring (chapters, paragraphs)
How can I use the information I have gathered correctly?	Chapter 4 Dealing with sources of information

2
Writing effectively in professional situations

2.1 The importance of writing in professional situations

2.2 Strategic factors

2.3 An absence of internal instructions

2.4 Indispensible writing skills

Some people see writing reports and memos as something that is keeping them from their real work. In this chapter we will see that writing should, instead, be regarded as a core task. Strategic factors that strongly influence writing in professional situations are also dealt with. Because useful guidelines for writing texts within companies are a rare thing, writers usually have to find their own way. They have to be able to create norms for effective and convincing writing themselves. The skills needed for this will be briefly dealt with.

2.1 The importance of writing in professional situations

Highly trained people usually find that writing takes up more of their working hours than many of them had imagined at the start of their careers. Take engineers, for instance: of course they have mainly been trained to develop or optimize technical products and processes. But before there is a product, feasibility studies have to be written, research reports produced, progress reports published and a lot of memos sent back and forth. No matter how brilliant your idea for a new product was, how clever your research plan or how decisive the conclusion of your feasibility study, nobody will ever put it into practice if you are not successful in conveying your findings clearly and convincingly to others: to your colleagues, to those in charge and to your clients. And even though oral communication is very important, you will find that you will have to communicate largely on paper. That will take up a lot of time: sometimes up to a third of your working time. It will take up so much time that it is fair to say that very often the primary result of an engineer’s work is not the apparatus or a system, but text.

It is not surprising, therefore, that employers often ask in employment advertisements for “good oral and written communication skills”. And it is also not surprising that shortcomings in this field are often a cause for complaint by employer organisations.

2.2 Strategic factors

Why do so many people experience problems with writing at work that they did not, or only to a minor extent, encounter during their studies? The reason for this is the role that texts play in professional situations, a role that is different from that in the educational setting.

The following three factors are characteristic of professional situations:

• The writing is primarily aimed at measures and decisions.
• There are a variety of readers, each with different interests.
• Readers are not prepared to spend much time on reading.

Many writers are insufficiently aware of the consequences of these characteristics. We will deal with them next.

2.2.1 Action-directed writing

The reports that students write during their study serve an educational purpose. They are designed to exercise the student’s skills and demonstrate that the writer is more or less able to independently analyse a problem and can indicate ways of solving these. Technical data and analyses form the core of a text.

The things you write in a work situation are usually directed towards action: measures to be taken or decisions to be made. The technical data and analyses you provide will be indispensible for this, but mainly as a vehicle for basing the necessary action on. This underlines the importance of firstly making it clear to the reader why something should be done (in other words, why they should read the report). That should be emphasized in the introduction. Another central aspect is what the reader is supposed to do with the results. This is why there is a strong emphasis on the conclusions and especially the recommendations.

The action concerned will almost always have repercussions for various departments and individuals. A measure in the field of production can have consequences for the purchasing, inventory management and marketing departments. Decisions with far-reaching consequences presuppose the involvement of several people within the firm’s hierarchy, or at least prior knowledge on the part of these people. This means that it is unlikely that your report will only be seen by those who issued you with the assignment. For many readers, the technical data will at most be regarded as background information only, and not something they need to delve into in detail.

2.2.2 Writing for a variety of readers

The readers who will look at your report will usually either be readers with specific background knowledge or readers who read the report only partially or with a specific purpose in mind:

• Decision-makers. These are the people who will decide whether the recommendations are to be implemented (managers and other generalists).
• Specialists. These are the people who are especially interested in the technical basis and the method ado...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Writing effectively in professional situations
• 3 From assignment to text
• 4 Dealing with sources of information
• 5 Structuring
• 6 Requirements for each part of the report
• 7 Special types of text
• 8 Letters, emails and memos
• 9 Putting ideas into words
• 10 Persuasive writing
• 11 Illustrations
• 12 Layout
• 13 Presenting a report orally
• Recommended literature
• Appendix
• About the authors
• Index